When Riku F. woke next, he was in some kind of nursing room. He looked to his side, seeing the president of Artemis, Nishida, at his bedside in a chair. "You're finally awake. They did quite the number on you, huh..?"
Riku averted his gaze, his expression dark. "How do you..."
Nishida cut him off. "Oh come on, you're smarter than that boy." He looked at her again, staring at her closely. "Stare too long and I might start blushing..." She said sarcastically.
"You're... How..?" Though he could hardly see it, the face of the woman who had saved him was almost identical to Nishida's. "You look nothing like before..."
"Hmm, I wonder why... Oh right, there's this little thing called magic. Like what you have..." Nishida muttered as she stared at him.
"What kind of magic changes your appearance that much..?"
She sighed. "It's kind of ironic honestly. My magic greatly enhances my physical capabilities whenever I'm fighting someone with evil intentions toward me. The greater the evil, the stronger I get." She stared at her fist as she clenched it. "Yet when I activate it, my appearance becomes the opposite of whatever I happen to look like. White skin to dark skin, dull silver eyes to bright gold ones, and short black hair to long white hair. It's that simple."
"So that's what it is..." Riku looked up at her face. "Why do you seem so angry..?"
"Because it doesn't change my body with it! It'd be so much easier to fight without these stupid curves." She sighed, ruffling her hair.
Riku blushed faintly as he noticed that was one thing that hadn't changed. He turned his head to stare at the ceiling again. "Why're you telling me this to me so easily..? That you have magic... What it is..."
"It's not like you wouldn't eventually find out on your own, considering you have magic as well. Letting you know what my magic is will also give you fair warning that if you ever plan to do anything evil to me...well, you saw what happened." Nishida smiled innocently.
"So...they're all really dead huh..?"
"They are. No one could survive something like that."
Riku chuckled. "You did..." He said as he recalled Nishida getting stabbed in the back before.
"Well, none of those other girls had magic. Except for Remi, but she could only make pills with harmful effects after all..."
"Yeah... I'm surprised you were so willing to use her own trick against her."
Nishida leaned toward Riku a bit, looking into his eyes with a cold gaze. "When you're in a do or die situation like that, you learn to not let certain things bother you. I opened up my clothes because it helps me fight better and I said those things to them because I knew it'd throw them off."
Riku stared back into her eyes, his gaze rather cold as well. "Is that why you were willing to kill the girls you accepted here so easily? Even if they did torture me, they still..." He averted his eyes.
"I'd do it again. Besides, they weren't real members, they were criminals. They did things like that to any unfortunate male they got their hands on."
Riku's eyes widened a bit and he looked up at her in shock. "What..?"
"Like I said, they were criminals. I thought they'd stop after being given a chance at redemption, but they continued, expecting that I wouldn't know I guess. Then again, they weren't aware I possessed any magic. Two, I brought them in because I was preparing to bring you in soon after. It was either they came with me or end up in jail."
Riku continued to stare at her, eyes widening even more. "What..?!"
"I wanted to see how you would fare against them. What you would do, how you would react, etc."
Riku shot up and grabbed the collar of the woman's shirt, glaring directly into her eyes. "You...You bi-"
Her eyes flickered between silver and gold. "I can kick your ass real easy right now... You really wanna do this or are you gonna let me continue?" She said with a cold gaze. He scoffed and let her go, turning away. "You had magic and yet you didn't want to hurt them despite everything they were doing. Was everything you said really true?"
"I don't have to tell you anything." He stated bluntly.
She sighed. "I wanted to see your magic. When you weren't doing anything at first I started to think you didn't have any magic and my senses were going crazy..." She stared at him. "I just couldn't comprehend why..."
"Because how could I? I'd be proving everything they said right if I attacked them, not to mention I didn't want them to know I had any magic. Who knows what Remi would've done with hers if she found out... Not to mention...I think they've been hurt plenty... Why should they have to be killed just because they suffered and wanted revenge?" He clenched his fist.
Nishida stared at his fist. "Well...you're not wrong..." She muttered. "But I had to put an end to it...their suffering and the suffering they continued to cause." Her gaze darkened, Riku glancing at her. "Being able to sense magic is quite the rare skill. Sensing your magic is what got me interested in you. It's also hard to hide magic power, but Remi's magic was so weak, I guess it wasn't hard for her to accomplish..."
Riku averted his eyes once more. "If you had just come to me normally I would've had no problem sharing..."
She sighed, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I didn't mean for it to get so bad. I didn't notice that you all had vanished until it had already started, and when I got there I thought you were going to do something to save yourself since I sensed you using you magic. I didn't know how you felt about all of it, so I'm sorry."
Riku glanced at her again, seeing the genuine regret on her face. "We all make mistakes... I'd be a hypocrite if I went off on you... I'll just call it my karma I guess..."
She frowned at his words. "You've been through a lot, what kind of karma would you deserve exactly..?"
"Like I said before, I don't have to tell you anything..." He laid down slowly, turning so his back was to her.
She sighed. "I guess I can't really blame you for your behavior. You can leave the organization and go home if you li-"
"I'll stay." He cut her off this time. She looked at him, shocked. "One condition: I'm not going to any of your 'classes' anymore. Have fun trying to get me to convince other guys how great this place is after that..." He scoffed.
She rolled her eyes. "I hope you enjoy the rest of you stay then. No more crazies from me, promise. But there are more interesting women here I'm sure you'll eventually run into." She smiled and turned, walking out of the room. "Goodnight Riku, rest easy."
Riku couldn't help but worry a bit at the words "interesting women". Every fiber of his being told him to be cautious of that woman. From his perspective, she always got what she wanted, one way or another, and yet seemed genuinely kind at the same time. Either way, he refused to trust this woman.